A new Web-based federal resource makes more than 100 million mapped records of nearly every living species nationwide searchable by any user.

The Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (BISON) systemallows users -- often land managers, researchers, refuge managers, citizen scientists, agriculture professionals, fisheries managers, water resource managers, educators and others -- to search for hundreds of thousands of species records in search fields ranging from the entire country and U.S. territories down to specific towns or parks.BISON displays search results in list or interactive map formats, and each species occurrence point can be clicked on to find more information about who provided or collected the data. Ultimately, more than 50 layers of environmental information can be visualized in each search result, making the data easier to understand.

The U.S. Geological Survey “is proud to announce this monumental resource,” said Kevin Gallagher, associate director of USGS’ Core Science Systems, in a press statement.

“This is a testament to the power of combining the efforts of hundreds of thousands of professional and citizen scientists into a resource that uses big-data and open-data principles to deliver biodiversity information for sustaining the nation’s environmental capital,” Gallagher added.